Russian Federation summons Polish ambassador over vandalism of Soviet graves

Relations between the two countries have been extremely fragile due to Russia’s support for separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine. But tensions have been especially high since Russian Federation annexed Crimea in 2014, a step that Warsaw has strongly condemned.

Russian Ambassador Sergey Andreev said the Soviet Union’s invasion of Poland in 1939 was not an aggression. Germany soon invaded Poland from the west, followed by a Soviet invasion from the east 16 days later.

In an interview with the TVN24 news station on Friday, ambassador Andreyev claimed Poland shares responsibility for inciting war hostilities, adding that by entering Polish territory on 17 September 1939, the Red Army had only carried out a defensive manoeuvre to safeguard the USSR.

Fifty-seven graves were discovered vandalized on Wednesday at a cemetery in Milejczyce in north-eastern Poland, Polish media reported.

The Polish Foreign Ministry said Mr Andreyev had “undermined historical truth”. “We note with regret that statements by the ambassador of the Russian Federation do not serve such objective”, reads the Foreign Ministry communique.

It was not clear when the graves were damaged.

“These young boys were fighting not for their homeland, they were fighting for Poland, they were freeing this place, and they died here in this region”.

The incident comes just over a week after Ambassador Katarzyna Pelczynska-Nalecz was summoned in Moscow to explain the removal of a Soviet-era statue in a Polish town.

“The narrative presented by the highest official representative of the Russian state in Poland undermines the historical truth and reflects the most hypocritical interpretation of the events known from the Stalinist and communist years”, the ministry said in a statement.